Comcast Imposes Internet Caps

Data caps on Comcast’s internet service are seen as inhibiting the growth of competing, non-cable video services like Netflix. However, Comcast’s 300 gigabyte cap is high enough to deter only the very movie-hungriest Netflix users: It’s enough to stream about 10 hours of Netflix content per day for a month, says the AP.

Comcast said Thursday that it will test charging $10 for every 50 gigabytes over that limit. Still, Comcast does have a vested interest in preventing competitors like Netflix from coming into the market, with Over The Top streaming video packages.

Reed Hastings, CEO of Nexflix, said, “It’s not a near-term issue with the 250 gigabyte cap. But the core principle [of network neutrality] is important anyway, which is the cap should be applied equally or not at all.”

Comcast has previously limited use to 250 gigabytes per month, but hasn’t charged those who exceed that limit. Instead, it’s warned them, and threatened repeat offenders with cancellation of their service.

Other home Internet service providers like Time Warner Cable and AT&T have experimented with lower data caps and charges for going over limits, but abandoned those after meeting fierce resistance from consumers and politicians.

Internet service providers say they need to have some sort of cap to prevent “data hogs” from slowing down service for everyone.

David Cohen, an executive video president of Comcast, said the new, more flexible approach should help customers get wider access to Internet content, without a hard cut-off.

Sandvine Corp., a company what supplies traffic measurement and management equipment to cable companies, says North American households are consuming an average of 32 gigabytes of data per month. A few households account for much of that usage, though, with the median figure much lower, at 10.3 gigabytes.

Comcast’s own Netflix-like service, Xfinity TV, doesn’t count against the data cap when it’s viewed on its app on the Xbox game console. That has raised questions about whether Comcast is unfairly favoring its own product over those of competitors like Netflix. Comcast says the reason Xfinity TV doesn’t count is that the video doesn’t come from the Internet, but from Comcast’s own equipment. Video from XfinityTV.com does count toward the limit.

Comcast, based in Philadelphia, has 18.6 million Internet subscribers, accounting for nearly one in every four U.S. households with broadband.